{"id":178,"date":"2021-07-17T02:20:52","date_gmt":"2021-07-16T17:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/?p=178"},"modified":"2024-01-22T19:18:22","modified_gmt":"2024-01-22T10:18:22","slug":"promoting-human-rights-through-global-citizenship-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/news\/promoting-human-rights-through-global-citizenship-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Promoting Human Rights Through Global Citizenship Education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Ravi Kanth Devarakonda<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GENEVA, Sep 18 2014 (IPS) <\/strong>– Amid escalating conflicts and rampant violations of human rights all over the world, spreading \u201chuman rights education\u201d is not an easy task. But a non-governmental organisation from Japan is beginning to make an impact through its \u201cglobal citizenship education\u201d approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the current annual meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which began on Sep. 8, two side events marked the beginning of what promises to be a sustained campaign to spread human rights education (HRE).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside the first, the launch of the web resource \u201cThe Right to Human Rights Education\u201d by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, a special workshop was also convened on HRE for media professionals and journalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The workshop was an initiative of the NGO Working Group on HRE chaired by Soka Gakkai International<\/a> (SGI), a prominent NGO from Japan fighting for the abolition of nuclear weapons, sustainable development and human rights education.\u201cIt is important to raise awareness of human rights education among media professionals and journalists who are invariably caught in the crossfire of conflicts\u201d \u2013 Kazunari Fujii, Soka Gakkai International<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the first time that the NGO Working Group on Human Rights Education and Learning and a group of seven countries representing the Platform for Human Rights Education and Training have organised a workshop on human rights education for media professionals and journalists,\u201d said Kazunari Fujii, SGI\u2019s Geneva representative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fujii has been working among human rights pressure groups in Geneva to mobilise support for intensifying HRE campaigning. \u201cThrough the promotion of human rights education, SGI wants to foster a culture of human rights that prevents violations from occurring in the first place,\u201c Fujii told IPS after the workshop on Tuesday (Sep. 16).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile protection of human rights is the core objective of the U.N. Charter, it is equally important to prevent the occurrence of human rights abuses,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citing SGI President Daisaku Ikeda\u2019s central message to foster a \u201cculture of human rights\u201d, Fujii said his mission in Geneva is to bring about solidarity among NGOs for achieving SGI\u2019s major goals on human rights, nuclear disarmament and sustainable development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current session of the Human Rights Council, which will end on Sep. 26, is grappling with a range of festering conflicts in different parts of the world. \u201cFrom a human rights perspective, it is clear that the immediate and urgent priority of the international community should be to halt the increasingly conjoined conflicts in Iraq and Syria,\u201d said Zeid Ra\u2019ad Al Hussein, the new U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn particular, dedicated efforts are urgently needed to protect religious and ethnic groups, children \u2013 who are at risk of forcible recruitment and sexual violence \u2013 and women, who have been the targets of severe restrictions,\u201d Al Hussein said in his maiden speech<\/a> to the Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe second step, as my predecessor [Navanetham Pillay] consistently stressed, must be to ensure accountability for gross violations of human rights and international crimes,\u201d he continued, arguing that \u201cimpunity can only lead to further conflicts and abuses, as revenge festers and the wrong lessons are learned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Al Hussein, who comes from the Jordanian royal family, wants the Council to address the underlying factors of crises, particularly the \u201ccorrupt and discriminatory political systems that disenfranchised large parts of the population and leaders who oppressed or violently attacked independent actors of civil society\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among others, he stressed the need to end \u201cpersistent discrimination and impunity\u201d underlying the Israel-Palestine conflict \u2013 in which 2131 Palestinians were killed during the latest crisis in Gaza, including 1,473 civilians, 501 of them children, and 71 Israelis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current session of the Human Rights Council is also scheduled to discuss issues such as basic economic and livelihood rights, which are going to be addressed through the UN\u2019s Sustainable Development Goals, the worsening plight of migrants around the world, and the detention of asylum seekers and migrants, including children in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cClearly, a number of human rights violations and the worsening plight of indigenous people are major issues that need to be tackled on a sustained basis,\u201d said Fujii. \u201cBut it is important to raise the awareness of human rights education among media professionals and journalists who are invariably caught in the crossfire of conflicts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During open discussion at the media professionals and journalists workshop, several reporters not only shared their personal experiences but also sought clarity on how reporters can safeguard human rights in conflicts where they are embedded with occupying forces in Iraq or other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a major issue that needs to be addressed because it is difficult for journalists to respect human rights when they are embedded with forces,\u201d Oliver Rizzi Carlson, a representative of the United Network of Young Peacebuilders<\/a>, told IPS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commenting on the work that remains to be done in spreading global citizenship education, Fujii noted that tangible progress has been made by bringing several human rights pressure groups together in intensifying the campaign for human rights education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSolidarity within civil society and increasing recognition for our work from member states is bringing about tangible results,\u201d said Fujii. \u201cThe formation of an NGO coalition \u2013 HR 2020 \u2013 comprising 14 NGOs such as Amnesty International and SGI last year is a significant development in the intensification of our campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Edited by\u00a0Phil Harris)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ravi Kanth Devarakonda GENEVA, Sep 18 2014 (IPS) – Amid escalating conflicts and rampant violations of human rights all over the world, spreading \u201chuman rights education\u201d is not an easy task. But a non-governmental organisation from Japan is beginning to make an impact through its \u201cglobal citizenship education\u201d approach. At the current annual meeting of the United […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,20,16,32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-global-regions","8":"category-human-right","9":"category-news","10":"category-regions"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6479,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions\/6479"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}